It has been a while since I read contemporary young adult novel, but I really enjoyed A Long Way from You by Gwendolyn Heasley.

Kitsy Kidd is a Texan girl who lives with her mother and her little brother Kiki. She's captain of the cheerleaders and has been dating the quarterback since sixth grade. She's very sweet, mature and likes art, so when she has the opportunity to spend one month in New York city and attend summer classes at Parsons, she can't miss it.

Kitsy was a great character, very realistic. She is experiencing a whole new world and meets a lot of new people, totally different from her. She wants to enjoy her trip, but her journey ended up being more a revelation to herself than she thought. She is a really nice girl and obviously New York tried to eat her, but she was stronger that anyone and managed to be true to herself after all.

I think I liked her more because she kind of reminded me at that age. Sometimes you don't know what to do when you face the world, but in the end if you follow your heart you will succeed. I devoured her story, it was easy to read and even when sometimes I wanted her to choose different, in the end it left me with a good feeling.

I definitely recommend A Long Way from You by Gwendolyn Heasley, specially for contemporary young adult readers, you will enjoy Kitsy's story and it's refreshing to find a young adult novel that concentrates on the character more than the romance. Obviously, if you already read about Kitsy's best friend Corrinne from the book Where I Belong, you can miss this one.

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